AI vs Digital Ethics – can the two actually co-exist?

Apart from laws, ethics are what keeps our society functioning well, so that people can live peacefully together.We live in time when the exchange of knowledge and information is reliant on technology. Effectively it is an era of “Digital Citizenship”. But what does this actually entail? Being a digital citizen means being a person with various skills and knowledge regarding the use of the internet via different electronic gadgets (like tablets and smart phones) and participating on social network platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Line). A person with such skills should apply their abilities for the good of society.How to be a good “digital citizen”

Be aware of the IT accessibility of other people. A good digital citizen should not discriminate against or look down on people who lack technology skills.

Be a good seller and a good consumer. Digital citizens must obey the law in online activity and ensure transactions are both trustworthy and ethical. For example, they should not deal with illegal transactions, should not download illegal content, etc.

Have good manners. A good digital citizen should have proper Digital Etiquette and be responsible for their online actions.

Respect laws and regulations. Financial transactions come under the electronic transaction laws that are designed to prevent and suppress different types of violations, such as the theft of business’ classified information or personal data.

Do not let technology destroy your health. Use it appropriately to minimize addiction that might result in health damage.

Learn how to be safe when using technology. Install a data protection system that will destroy your sensitive data remotely when your devices are stolen.

However, we all know that not everyone follows the rules, and some break them in the form of bullying. Discrimination against a person on the grounds of skin color, class, or religion, is a form of bullying. An example of such a case was the Columbine High School massacre that took place on 20th April, 1999. The attackers were two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who were frequent targets of bullying in the school just because their obsession was a computer game called “Doom”. They chose to spend more time with their game after classes than with their classmates, so they became the constant targets for humiliation. One day, they found several automatic guns at home, so they brought them to school and started shooting indiscriminatingly. This resulted in 13 deaths and 24 injuries before the pair killed themselves.As we live in the internet era, bullying is expanding, turning into “cyberbullying” which includes defamation, revilement, blackmailing, and exposure of personal information in order to hurt or embarrass the target.

Cyberbullying can be divided into 7 categories (according to nobully.com);

Exclusion – excluding someone from online community groups on social network platforms like Line or Facebook.

Nation – sneaking onto someone else’s account when the owner forgets to log out and posting something that might embarrass the account’s owner or cause misunderstanding. If you forget to log out from your Facebook at an internet café someone else may use it to post something indecent on your Timeline.

Harassment – when people criticize or comment about someone using indecent terms or crush their feelings, undermining their self-esteem. For example, some netizens comment that they feel sorry for the rapist when the victim is not a good-looking one.

Cyberstalking – sending messages, photos, videos or other content that causes embarrassment to other people in the online world. An example of this is the case of Tyler Clementi in September 2010. The 18 year-old was a student of Rutgers University in the United States, who asked his roommate to allow him to have the room to himself for one night. The curious roommate set his laptop and webcam to stalk and record Tyler. Watching the webcam remotely, the roommate saw Tyler bringing a man into the room, so he posted the video on Twitter, called Tyler a homo, and invited netizens to watch Tyler’s actions via the webcam. After that night’s incident, Tyler became really stressed, lost his self-esteem and mental strength, and eventually drowned himself in a suicide.

Outing and trickery – teasing someone, making them lose control with the aim to expose their embarrassing behavior online.

Cyber threat – joining cyberbullying instead of stopping it.

Digital Ethics and PrivacyIn this digital era, where we are surrounded by various types of technology and artificial intelligence (AI), Digital Ethics and Privacy is being raised at all levels, with many sectors seeing its importance, especially governments and organizations which establish proactive campaigns to prevent possible problems. The World Ethics Forum was held to brainstorm and foresee the trend of technology in the future and also to plan for ways to deal with ethical problems that may arise in the future.Google also tried to set up an AI Ethics Board to make suggestions and consider several types of risks that concern people. They are worried that AI might be uncontrollable in the future, with more development of technology as AI is equipped with more and more abilities to perform human tasks like medical examinations and treatment or vehicle control.

Robot and AI control lawsAt the Technology Law Conference held by the International Bar Association (IBM) from May 18-19, 2017 in Brazil, there was a discussion about how the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee has outlined laws for its member countries that determine the legal status of robots and AI as electronic persons. Moreover, they also set guidelines regarding the approach of member nations towards robots as follows:

Every robot should have an emergency switch or a kill switch installed because AI is made with the ability to self-develop and it might become a threat to humans. Robots should also never be produced as weapons against humans.

Emotions should never be instilled in robots. They should not have feelings, such as love or hate, the same way humans do.

Insurance should be required for large robots with their owner and the production company responsible for the insurance fees. These two parties must be responsible for every problem that might occur if the robot’s control systems malfunction. Driverless vehicles also fall under this condition and must be tied to insurance as well.

Robots should have the same rights and responsibilities as human individuals as they are legally determined to be electronic persons. A robot’s role or responsibility is shared with its owner and its maker. One of the roles is paying taxes which was a controversial issue when the guidelines were introduced for the robots in the European Union. The aim is to reduce the impact of robots on unemployment. The Parliament also agreed that robots should be charged with making Social Security Contributions and they should pay normal taxes like general citizens.

One of the many worries that people have is that AI will kick humans out of their jobs. This already happens in some countries, for example, a hotel abroad has started using robots instead of human staff as it helps them reduce costs and creates a new experience for the guests. This can happen with many other careers, as AI might eventually replace human workers.However, instead of being concerned whether laws and regulations will be able to control AI, one of the things we can do now is to plan to use it wisely in each organization. One good example of this is a start-up company called Vymo that has developed a customer relationship management system for sales persons using AI technology.

Our Partnership

Invoice-trading marketplace for businesses to raise fast working capital.

Headquarter: ThailandAbout the company: SMEs who trade with large organisations often suffer from long payment terms and late payment. InvoiceInterchange is a P2P invoice-trading marketplace that allows SMEs to raise immediate funds against outstanding invoices by selling them to investors. This unique approach gives businesses control and flexibility to manage their cash flows on their own terms. At the same time, accredited investors (high net worth individuals, asset managers, family offices) have the opportunity to invest in a new asset class i.e. trade receivables that are secured, liquid and with high risk-adjusted returns.

First Circle is the first digital SME lender in SE Asia serving underbanked SMEs with the finance they need to grow.

Headquarter: PhilippinesAbout the company: With a team led by former associates of Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, Ci Labs, and the team who led the EM roll-out of the CompareAsiaGroup, First Circle provides productive credit to SMEs in developing markets. It partners with eCommerce platforms, payment service providers, trade bodies, and online originators to reach and serve business owners at scale. The process takes 1-3 days to complete with SME’s submitting traditional and alternative data in support of their application. In addition, First Circle uses technology to drive process automation including KYC and underwriting.

Everex is the first microfinance platform on the Ethereum blockchain that is based on stable-coin (fiat pegged and backed).

Headquarter: ThailandAbout the company: Everex is a financial inclusion blockchain remittance company using the Ethereum blockchain to create “cryptocash” assets, which are pegged to units of fiat currency and tethered to the P2P network. With a vast number of underbanked global citizens, Everex performs cross-border transactions by collecting and analyzing a user’s financial and personal data as a basis for blockchain-based credit scoring and lending offerings. By implementing this solution, Everex furthers financial inclusion and access to capital in developing markets.

Bento powers banks and wealth managers with institutional portfolio construction tools, including strategic and tactical asset
allocation which benefits their end clients by utilizing technology at a low price point.

Headquarter: SingaporeAbout the company: Bento is a human-led robo-advisor (Bionic) that brings a fundamentally-led institutional asset allocation model for individual investors at a very low price point using technology. It aids human advisors to impart unconflicted and customizable investment advice.

Covr Security has developed a mobile security platform that combines user-centric management of both mobile security and digital personal data with advanced authentication and end-to-end encrypted communication security protocols.

Headquarter: SwedenAbout the company: Covr Security provides a unique app-based mobile security and management solution – it is a platform that offers user-centric management of personal data and mobile security. Covr’s solution addresses the security threats hindering trust in mobile environments as well as the issues affecting mobile end-user engagement. Through a secure connection between the end-user’s device and any digital solution, Covr ensures the correct individual gains access to data, funds, or a physical space. As a result, this creates a password-free environment for all users.

FundRadars is helping everyone to invest with an all-in-one simple mutual fund analytics and e-investing platform.

Headquarter: ThailandAbout the company: SiamSquared Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd. is a Bangkok based investment technology firm. It launched StockRadars, an application principally designed to simplify investment for everyone which has now surpassed 500,000 users to-date. It extended its range of service to the mutual fund market which eases the decision-making of fund investment for all.

Canopy is a “make sense of your data” company – It is a powerful aggregation, visualization, analytics, and reporting tool to help wealth management professionals and high net worth individuals make superior decisions.

Headquarter: SingaporeAbout the company: Canopy is a powerful account aggregation, visualization, analytics, and reporting platform to help financial institutions, wealth management professionals, and high net worth individuals make superior decisions. By aggregating all the data from different sources in one place, the visualization and analytics are available on a web-based interface for desktop and mobile and available in Email, Excel or PDF reports. With to-the-cent accuracy, Canopy provides wealth management experts with a professional tool for client servicing and enables individuals to make accurate and reliable decisions.

Bambu is an Asia-wide B2B Robo-Advisory firm offering financial and non-financial firms the ability to integrate and benefit
from the shift in digital wealth.

Headquarter: SingaporeAbout the company: Bambu is a B2B Robo-Advisory software firm offering financial institutions and consumer brands the ability to integrate and benefit from the ongoing digital transformation in wealth management. It is looking to market its services Asia-wide, capitalizing on its traction to tap the growing robo-advisory market.

Headquarter: USAAbout the company: CryptoMove Tholos is the world’s first and only key and secrets management product that protects API keys, tokens, certificates, and other application secrets with decentralized moving target defense. Moving target defense technology is a security paradigm shift and identified as a priority by global banks, MIT, NIST. CryptoMove launched after years of stealth R&D and is globally patented.

Headquarter: SingaporeAbout the company: EYWAMEDIA is a multi-award winning futuristic cross screen customer engagement and experience venture that enables brands to engage their most potential-loyal customers based on offline-online data across screens (TV, Radio, Cinema, App, Web, Social, Print, Billboards, Stores) to make the best match between products and preferences of customers!

Headquarter: SingaporeAbout the company: Jumper.ai is an AI powered platform enabling brands to capitalize on social media posts to create engaging customer experiences and also turn it into a point of sale, in an instant. No websites to build, no apps to download. Jumper.ai auto responds to buying signals and trigger events on social media to create immediate rapport, context, engagement and sales pipeline with more prospects.

Pand.ai is the leading conversational AI specialist for financial institutions in Asia.

Headquarter: SingaporeAbout the company: Pand.ai is an artificial intelligence startup that specialises in deep natural language processing. We develop the underlying algorithm that powers “smart chatbot”​, i.e. the ones that understand the semantics of an entire sentence and retains contextual memory, thus making conversations more “human-like”​. We are currently serving Global Fortune 500 companies across Asia.

Headquarter: ThailandAbout the company: Pymlo develops a simple back-end accounting platform for SMEs and startups to manage business operations and accounting for a fraction of the time and price. We seek to bring Asian SME’s accounting to the modern world, showing them the ease of digitizing accounting and the benefit to connecting to the wide financial world.

Headquarter: India
About the company: Vymo improves productivity metrics such as conversion percentage, turnaround time, and sales activities per opportunity and has a revenue impact of 3-10%. With Vymo, salespeople can focus on high-ROI activities so that their time is not spent reporting data.